Gowanus Furniture Co.

Last weekend's project - made my crossover go from homely to handsome with a sweet walnut enclosure. Pretty nerdtastic, but my receiver is old and doesn't have a subwoofer-out, so I run the signal though the crossover first, and that sends the lows to the subwoofer and everything else back to the receiver to go to the main speakers. The walnut's not resting on the surface - there's about 1mm of space - small rubber feet are underneath. See what I did there? It's not too deep, so made the walnut rails and a plywood top to support the receiver in the back.

We're having a special sale through Sunday, August 3rd - $148 for your own custom planter. It's sort of market research. A beta test, if you will. After that, prices a bit higher, and options a bit fewer.

I decided I wanted to recreate this series as a series of cutting boards. At the risk of sounding a bit flip, I thought it'd look really cool as I liked the imagery, but also I wanted to delve a bit more into the meaning of the piece.

The inspiration of the piece was Jesus' outcry from the Cross - "lema sabachthani" - "why have you forsaken me?" The whole piece questions the nature of suffering and it's existence.

I think what makes Newman interesting is that it is so abstract, yet in the process of recreating these pieces, I see his logic behind them. They're not "just stripes" - the distances and widths between elements are consistent across the series (and he created these works over a span of eight years - from 1958 to 1966). There's a logic to be discovered.

They're also intended to ask a question and foster a conversation. The scale at which they're painted (about 6' tall) doesn't really lend itself to that. I saw the show at the National Gallery in 2013 and was thrilled, but a hushed room and security telling you to not take pictures or get too close makes it lose something.

I liked the contrast of a serious subject and the thought that these could be used while entertaining and would be talked about. In the same spirit, another favorite artist of mine, Clyfford Still, hated the idea of museums. Bad for the art. Get rid of the sanctity. Sort of. And live with the work.

I donated a set to the spring ArtBridge auction, and glad to think that they're now in someone's home.

Each board measures about 5" x 7", all 14 stations were included and numbered on the back.

Here's a peek at the next thing we're working on - window planters for herbs in the kitchen or living curtains. Simple plywood container with a gorgeous walnut faceplate. Solving the world's small-apartment problems, one at a time...

Pete Raho, founder and owner of Gowanus Furniture Co., will be speaking at the TEDxGowanus event, held on January 26, 2014.

The talk will be all about creating great products on a small scale, and how we can use that model to expand urban manufacturing in the 21st century.

Around the world people now think "Brooklyn" and they think it's all birds and mustaches. That's not what we're talking about.

That's not going to last.

Cities are engines of creativity that attract the best and the brightest, and manufacturing sectors have a multiplier effect on an urban economy. Let's put that creative energy toward making exceptional (and profitable!) products that are influenced by the city in which they're made.

Old-school high-volume manufacturing in cities is dead, but that doesn't' mean we should turn every old factory into another luxury condo. Please. Keep the space for manufacturing - and lots of it - but on a smaller scale.